Hotboxed Lobsters are a Problem

Hotboxed lobsters is a cruel initiative introduced by chef Charlotte Gill. Photo courtesy of the New Amsterdam Market via Flickr

A licensed medical marijuana giver and restaurant owner is getting lobsters high before cooking them. As entertaining as that sentence is, this viral news is boneheaded because it allows people to feel more “mindful” and “selfless” when killing an animal.

For those that just got excited about having a lobster edible, Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Maine, said you cannot get high because the THC is cooked off from high temperatures. As TODAY reports, this is legal as long as customers are aware of what they are consuming because Maine allows recreational pot.

Gill is blowing marijuana smoke at lobsters before they are cooked. She saw less aggression in a high lobster she experimented on and concluded that this was a way to reduce suffering. Therefore, she is offering customers an option to have their meal stoned before death.

Gill mentioned PETA could learn a thing or two from her, since they euthanize animals. PETA said to the Marijuana Moment that there is no difference between boiling the lobsters or hotboxing them. They still feel pain and should not be killed for food.

The animal is still being boiled and/or steamed alive. You are still eating and killing this animal that has a right to live, and you think sedating it beforehand makes you a better person? I am sure you would not want to be given a joint before being tortured to death; there is no difference. Humans killing humans and humans killing animals are both inhumane.

What particularly bothers me is that in a Washington Post article about the weed lobsters, a professor is quoted saying that pain cannot be proven in any animal species. Maybe you cannot hear the lobsters cry as they are boiled to death, but you can see and hear a dog or another animal in pain when it is injured or abused. Just because a lobster does not make a sound does not mean it is not suffering.

In the end, you are still making the choice to kill an animal—and in this case it is suffering a long, painful death. If you want to be more humane, crack open the live lobster tanks at restaurants and set those little ones free.

By all means, smoke some reefer. Just do not give it to animals to justify harming them.